Fiona,
I'm in the midst of THE SHADOW OF SOLOMON by Laurence Gardner. It's about the history of Freemasonry and how various rituals and informations were retained, lost and reinvented over a few thousands years to produce what is modern Freemasonry.
Through what amounts to a mistranslation and then mis-usage of the term in Milton's "Paradise Lost" Gardner explained how Venus, "the light bringer" which was written as "lux-fer" or "lucifer" in Latin had always been a feminine term referring to the morning star, and after 1667 was then a masculine term associated with the Christian concept of Satan.
Fascinating stuff once I got past the huge historical opening. I can see how the author needed to get that background in there to provide context, but whew, it was like high school history all over again...